Institute of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Neuchâtel , Neuchâtel , Switzerland.
Department of Psychology, The City College of the City University of New York , New York, NY , USA.
Front Public Health. 2015 Jun 8;3:158. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2015.00158. eCollection 2015.
The "burnout syndrome" has been defined as a combination of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment caused by chronic occupational stress. Although there has been increasing medical interest in burnout over the last decades, it is argued in this paper that the syndrome cannot be elevated to the status of diagnostic category, based on (1) an analysis of the genesis of the burnout construct, (2) a review of the latest literature on burnout-depression overlap, (3) a questioning of the three-dimensional structure of the burnout syndrome, and (4) a critical examination of the notion that burnout is singularized by its job-related character. It turns out that the burnout construct is built on a fragile foundation, both from a clinical and a theoretical standpoint. The current state of science suggests that burnout is a form of depression rather than a differentiated type of pathology. The inclusion of burnout in future disorder classifications is therefore unwarranted. The focus of public health policies dedicated to the management of "burnout" should not be narrowed to the three definitional components of the syndrome but consider its depressive core.
“ burnout 综合征”被定义为慢性职业压力导致的情感耗竭、去人格化和个人成就感降低的综合表现。尽管过去几十年来，医学领域对 burnout 的兴趣日益增加，但本文认为，基于以下几点，该综合征不能被提升为诊断类别：（1）对 burnout 结构的起源进行分析，（2）对 burnout-抑郁重叠的最新文献进行综述，（3）对 burnout 综合征的三维结构提出质疑，以及（4）对 burnout 因其与工作相关的特点而具有独特性的观点进行批判性审查。事实证明，从临床和理论的角度来看，burnout 结构的基础都很脆弱。目前的科学状况表明，burnout 是一种抑郁形式，而不是一种不同类型的病理学。因此，将 burnout 纳入未来的疾病分类是没有道理的。致力于管理“ burnout”的公共卫生政策的重点不应仅限于综合征的三个定义性组成部分，而应考虑其抑郁核心。
